3 Slick Rebranding Tips For Churches From BP

I've been blogging about PR disasters over the last week or so (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4). You know that you have a PR disaster catastrophe on the cards when Greenpeace starts a campaign to redesign your brand. You can see a set of new BP logos here. Often organisations undergo rebranding to lose the move beyond a PR disaster. But in BP's case everyone else is giving them a helping hand. Bless.

There are 3 slick rebranding tips churches can learn from BP:

1) Don't fight the anger – Don't go all legal. No matter what your church has done/hasn't done, people will say nasty things about you. Do nasty things to your logo. Sending in the sharks lawyers* to protect your brand is like throwing petrol on a fire. Focus on fixing the mess. Let the designers have their day. Rebrand once the anger dies down, and the problem has been fixed.

2) Rebranding won't rebuild your reputation - Reputation takes a lifetime to build and a moment to destroy. Newcolours, new names, new fonts won't get you out of the mess. Fix. The. Mess. (I'm tipping one year until BP rebrands)

3) Apply common sense – When you rename your church make sure you can deliver on the new name. Don't give your project to rename your church 'top hope'. If you fail it makes you look even more stupid.

(I love how one designer renamed BP as Broken Pipe. Summed up how they handled the crisis. To all my online friends who live near the Gulf of Mexico who are affected. I hope you get all the support you need.)

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One Comment

Pastor's Wife - January 4th, 2011 at 8:42 am

Interesting post. I’ve been devouring much of your archives; thank you for the work you’ve put into this blog!!
This post prompted me to delurk. It’s commentary on rebranding specifically due to disaster.
Do you have any thoughts or opinions (you have many according to your bio, smile) regarding rebranding an unestablished and poorly started church plant that has no momentum in a big city?
May I get even more specific? A plant that has been four years running. No logo, no mission statement, some advertising done (mass mailers, radio), a too-common name easily confused with another in the city, etc… Disaster? Not exactly, but enough people exposed to the plant and turned off.
Would you recommend rebranding (new name and all) or just trying to redeem what we’ve got?

About Steve Fogg

I’ve been a Graphic Designer, a Creative Director, a Director and now I’m a Communications guy to one incredible church called Crossway.
I’m passionate about sharing with the world what I know about branding, communications, marketing and all things digital.